Brrrrr! Howdy y’all. It’s freakin cold here in Vegas. The locals are pissed. I walked out to my truck this afternoon and slipped on ICE on the sidewalk. I think the high today was mid 50’s. Complete bull if you ask me. We still managed to head out onto the lake and checked out a new island. We dubbed it Shipwreck Island, but have since found out that it was already named that. So much for being original. When we pulled into the cove where we moored we saw a small 18′ boat about ten feet below us, and on the other side of the peninsula there was an old 40+’ wood boat on the beach. Pretty crazy exploring those. Rode the motorcycle home and froze my arse off.

Last few days have been pretty lazy. I’ve played a few sessions of 100-200, winning them all. I won $3100 Mon night, $400 Tue night, and $1000 Wed night. Can’t complain, that’s for sure! In the $400 session I played an interesting hand heads up with Svi, a Toronto native that plays a pretty solid game, but a little too weak-tight, and thus I three bet him with the K Q out of the cutoff. I was sitting one to his left. The flop came K Q 3 . He checked, I bet, he raised, I 3 bet, he 4 bet, I 5 bet, he 6 bet, and I just called. Now He’s pretty straight forward in his play, so there’s no way he had KK (would’ve 4 bet pre), and highly unlikely that he has QQ (maybe 5%… same reason. Would’ve 4 bet). He never raises with small pairs, so that ruled out 33. Thus, his most likely holding is KQ, and second most likely is J T . The turn came an offsuit deuce. He bet, I raised, and after some complaining he folded and showed two face cards. Players to my left said he had KQ. Made sense, and I played perfect. But… oops. He actually had QQ. QQ! Second nuts! And mucked! There was $2400 in the pot, he’s thinking it’s gonna cost $400 more (turn and river), and he only has one out. Now, it does make sense for me to have KK there… I basically play it the same way… but I also play KQ and 33 the same way too. So sweet…

So, the Five Diamond starts tomorrow, $1500 NL. I’m planning on playing events 1-3 and 6-8, which are all 1500, 2000, 2500. I don’t really want to invest more than 12k into this series. If I so well I will play more or if I get somebody to take some of my action I will play more. Offer is still out there if anybody wants a piece!

Until tomorrow…

Peace and good luck.

Devo

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“I flopped quads.” Uggggggghhhhhh…. damn my head hurts. I’ve been awake for about half an hour. It’s 6:07pm. I just popped an 800ml tab of Mexican Ibuproferen. Like, really… it’s from Mexico. I’m hungry. I stink. Lara informed me of that. But damn was it a good night last night!

It all started somewhere around 6:30pm when Lara left the house headed to the Wynn for a date night. We went and saw Le Reve, the new Franco Dragone show. I was really excited to see the show because of the themes that Dragone was employing, and I completely missed all of that. Flew right over my head. And I’m usually pretty good at picking up that kind of stuff. Instead I enjoyed the beauty and the awesomeness of the acrobatics that the performers were pulling off. Pretty flippin incredible actually. The show was well worth it.

From there we headed to Capo’s for dinner… the goodest Italian restaurant ever. Unfortunately my regular server wasn’t there, but the food was still as delicious as ever! We went to the Bellagio after that to try and round up some kids for a little late night fun. It ended up being Lara, myself, and my buddy Jay who went to VooDoo on top of the Rio. Jay is a friend of mine from Minnesota who now lives in San Diego. I really believe he has a promising future in the poker world. He’s been professional for a few years now and is a better hold’em player than I am, but like many of the Minnesota boys, he’s generally avoided any kind of fanfare. I think however that he sees the metagame value in all that extra stuff and is going to give it his best shot. He’s young, good looking, talented, and a ton of fun, all the necessary elements for a following.

After some cocktails at 51 stories, we decided to go play some dice. Who’s idea? Lara’s of course. We’ll make this long story short. No clue when we started. We quit sometime around 5am. Lara made over $1k. I made over $1800. Jay made over $4k. Good times. But wait… it gets better. From there we took a cab back to the Bellagio where Jay was staying and my truck was parked, and naturally had to wander into the poker room. Not sure how it happened, but I took an open seat to “kill some time” in a 10-20 NLHE game.

Now, don’t forget… I’m way hammered at this point. Not destroyed by any means, but I couldn’t even operate a R/C car at that point much less any other form of machinery. I think that’s why I decided to sit for a while, because I was too drunk to drive. Clearly a good time to sit in the highest stakes game in the room at the point, right? The good news though is that I realized my intoxication and the image that I could cultivate, and I used that to the maximum.

I dropped my flag ($5k chip) on the table and asked for a rack and three, which means one rack of $20 chips and 3 $1k chips. I told the table in my best drunken slur that I was putting these three yellow chips in my pocket and they could only take my two thousand. I was drunk, but something was clicking in my mind actually. My reads were spot on, and I used my image perfectly. I bluffed a guy in the very first hand I played with king high on the river. He told me he had ace high. I then said, “If you have ace high, you should call because that beats my king high.” He then folded. I showed my king high.

The best hand of the night came when a guy opened from the hi-jack (two off the button) and I read him as weak in the small blind, plus I had to mix up my game a little bit, so I re-raised with the 22 to $420. He called. Flop: 227. I immediately bet $500. LOL. Good slowplay, right? He raises to $1500. I re-raise for an additional $1200ish, total bet of $2700. He finally calls. “I flopped quads.” Damn that was fun to say.

Lara meanwhile crushed the 2-5 NL game for over a thousand, and we finally walked to the cage together somewhere around 8:30am. Good date night. As I was cashing out, she asked me how much I was in for. $2k I told her. The cashier counted over $12k in chips. OH MY GOD. I booked a win in one hammered three hour session of a game that I suck at for over ten thousand. I’ve never won five digits in a cash game before. Ever. It was a pretty sweet feeling. However, thinking back on the night, I obviously cashed out the three yellow chips in my pocket, so I only won over $7k in three hours of drunken poker. What a sweet feeling. I might have to give the ol NL a few more shots!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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Little Mr. Mom, little 100-200; all in the life of a poker pro. Happy Thanksgiving boys and girls!

Last time I wrote I was headed off to the UPC $600+60 event, hoping once again to make the elusive TV table. However, the most exciting thing that happened there was seeing Pam Brunson, a friend of mine, who HAD made the TV table from Sunday’s event… wearing the last bracelet that her dad (Doyle obv.) had won at Binions. So freakin cool. It was a neat moment to wish her good luck before she sat down. From there I headed to Bellagio after my 2.5 hour visit to Binions and sat immediately in the 100-200 game. The game was a total rock garden and I escaped after two hours up 1200. I then moved to the 40-80 mix which was super juicy and ran TERRIBLE. Enough said there. Then, went home, played online, and blew another $600. Total loss for the day around $2k.

Tuesday I woke up and decided to be Mr. Mom - doing laundry, cleaning up, and generally catching up on everything that I have failed to do for the past two months. I got insurance on my bike and paid for six months, went to the DMV and registered it, bought a mouse, fed my snake, and continued to do more house chores. I think I did somewhere around eight loads of laundry. Sick, eh?

Wednesday I woke up with intentions to do much the same, and after doing more laundry, cleaning the bathtub, and attempting to clean my room, I gave up. I headed into the Bellagio around 5pm to play some 1-2. They finally got a THIRD (sweet, eh? not even a tourney in town!) game started around 6:30. I sat, played four hands, folded them all, and then got moved to the main game. I folded my first hand, won the second, and then won the third… good for up $3k immediately. NICE! I played for another few hours and finished up $4800.

The game was pretty interesting. The mix consisted of Scott Fishman, two local pros, and myself - which is usually an outlook for a pretty bad game, but it was actually a pretty good game. After the two local pros shipped out, Kenna James shipped in, and let me tell you - I was very impressed with what he did to the game. He reminded me much of what I like to do to a game - walk in, be loud, be funny, be personable, and generally fire up the game so it’s fun and loose. I hope to reach that point where I can do that to a 1-2 game. I was also impressed with Scott’s play - 100% solid. There were no real interesting hands, but y’all might get a kick out of this one. Dave, who looks familiar and regularly plays in the bigger games, raises UTG+1. The fish to my right cold calls, and I three-bet with the A K . Dave 4 bets, and we both call. The flop comes rags. Dave bets, fish calls, and I muck my AK - figuring that I’m drawing to 6 outs at best - quite possibly 3 or 0. Either way, bad spot. The turn comes a Q , Dave bets, and the fish folds. Dave shows 5 8 . Atta boy! Pretty silly when you broke it down, but it sure was good for his image, and he played it good post acting on his reads.

So, here I am fifty-one minutes into Thanksgiving. I was really hoping to head home for the holiday, but found out this week that my sister was not coming down from Colorado, nor were we sure if we’d be able to see extended family. I was planning on heading down and then coming back immediately tonight to meet Lara, who flys in at 1:30 PM today! WooHoo! So instead, I’m picking her up from the airport and we’re headed to John’s house. I’m pretty excited to have a family thanksgiving dinner with one of my best friends here in town, my girlfriend, and my roomie Danny. Should be good times!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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Find yourself. I received an e-mail yesterday saying that I needed to be writing about poker more. Aparrently all my recent blogs have been about “fishing and [invalid card]” according to my friend Larry. Thanks for the e-mail buddy - I laughed quite hard.

So I got back from Montana Saturday at 1:30pm and went straight to the Bellagio because my life is all about poker and I am an action junkie. *NOT* (in typical Borat fashion). I went straight to the lake, cracked a beer, and cast a line in the water. I love the lake. It was so nice coming from thirty degree weather to having my shirt off and the sun on my chest in perfect 75 degree weather. After we got back, THEN I headed into the Bellagio for a little cards. I must admit, I did have the itch for some serious action. All this small NL online stuff and small live stuff I’ve been a part of lately was definately rubbing on me - and I wanted to sit in a big game. I started in the 40-80 mix game, moved to the 100-200 game which sucked, moved to the 10-20 NL game that was decent but broke, and headed home after a few hours. I made somewhere around a dime.

Sunday I woke up later than I wanted to and had to kinda hurry down to Binions for the UPC $300+40 NLHE event. I need to make one of these TV tables man! However, nothing went right for me and I was busto within four levels. I won one hand in the third level when I raised pre after one limper and everybody folded. LOL. It was quite fun though to see some of the friendly faces that were there; my friends Brandon Cantu and Pam Brunson as well as several other people that I recognized from the circuit. Also in the field was Todd Brunson and Hoyt Corkins. I’m going to play in the $600+50 event today. Hopefully I’ll bust out in level two so I can get on the lake before it’s too late!

That evening I came home and played some online and ran pretty well. More importantly though I have been playing pretty well in the past week. I’m officially un-stuck from my online lessons and actually up about a thousand. Well, while crushing the game, Randy (friend in town from LA) got all fired up to go play some cards, so Danny, Jared, Randy and I headed to the Sunset Station to play some 3-6-9 limit hold’em. I decided that instead of playing my usual reckless style I would only play reckless pre-flop. Anytime it was limped or folded to me, I would raise. If it was raised in front of me I would play straight. It was good to put myself in some weird situations with huge pots. I definately learned a thing or two about value betting cause I knew I was getting called by some super weak hands! Plus, it’s just a ton of fun to roll over king-three offsuit on the river, say “The nuts,” and not be lying!

Well… in other news I’m going to be playing mostly cash games until the start of the Bellagio Five Diamond starting on the first. I’m selling up to 50% of myself for the events simply because I don’t feel like investing $30k into a couple of weeks of tournaments. Fifteen sounds much better! So if you or anybody you know is interested, please let me know. Otherwise you’ll only get to read about some of the events and not the main event i’d be playing!

Last night I watched the movie Cars for the second time this week. It is an extremely beautiful movie in all aspects. It really captures the essence of the fact that life is a journey, an adventure. Relationships are more important than destinations. It is a wonderful reminder that we all need to take some time to just slow down and forget about time for a while. I highly recommend that you buy the movie, watch it, let it sink in, laugh, cry, and then watch it again a few days later. Here is the lyrics from the song played during the epilogue that really brings the movie home.

Find Yourself
Brad Paisley

When you find yourself in some far off place
And it causes you to rethink some things
You start to sense that slowly you’re becoming someone else
And then you find yourself

When you make new friends in a brand new town
And you start to think about settlin down
The things that would have been lost on you
Are now clear as a bell
And you find yourself
Yeah that’s when you find yourself

Well you go through life so sure of where you’re headed
And you wind up lost and it’s the best thing that could’ve happened
Cause sometimes when you lose your way, it’s really just as well
Cause you find yourself
Yeah that’s when you find yourself

When you meet the one that you’ve been waiting for
And she’s everything that you want and more
You look at her and you finally start to live for someone else
And then you find yourself
That’s when you find yourself

Well we go through life so sure of where we’re headed
And we wind up lost and it’s the best thing that could’ve happened
Cause sometimes when you lose your way it’s really just as well
Cause you find yourself
Yeah that’s when you find yourself

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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Still in Montana Woke up yesterday morning, didn’t feel like getting out of bed, called the airline and pushed it back to tomorrow. God I love being a poker player :-). Lara and I spent the day yesterday doing absolutely nothing, and it was everything I wanted it to be. It feels so good to add a vacation element of relaxation to this trip. We went out to dinner at a really nice restaurant here in town, and holy schneikes was it inexpensive! Two beers, bottle of wine, appetizer, and split king crap legs - total bill of $73. How do they make any money?!? We then went to see Borat, and I must say I was a little disappointed. I love the jackass type stuff, but this was a little insulting at times, very disgusting (but funny) at times, and I suppose that my expectations were too high. I laughed, but I won’t be seeing it again.

I have come to love mornings again on this trip as I have been experiencing them. Wake up whenever I do, have a couple cups of coffee, catch up with e-mails and myspace stuff, play a little online, read the paper, and just relax. This morning I chatted with my sister for a good hour and I am so proud of her. She’s living in Colorado Springs and doing pretty well. She is an artist and just got picked up for a regular thing. Check out some of her work here, and hey, maybe you’ll like it and buy some! She’s pretty dang talented. I’m very proud of her.

I have been playing a bunch online during this trip. I’m officially un-stuck from my no-limit lessons and actually up about $1k. I’ve made about 3 this week thus far. I’m finally refreshing my love of online poker which feels good.

I fly back tomorrow, land at 1:30pm, and head directly to the lake. Back to normal life or whatever life in Vegas is called!

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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Absolutely zero poker content whatsoever. Except I play and she rakes. I have a tattoo on my right calf that is flames with the verse “James 4:14″ inscribed within the flames. It says, “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow, for what is your life? It is a vapor that appears for a moment and then vanishes.” The tattoo means many things to me, but at this moment I am simply amazed at how neat life is. We really have no clue what it ever going to happen to us at any given moment in the future, regardless of how near or far away that moment is. I truly believe that we should all make more of an effort to release the micro-management of our lives and return to the fundamentals of living for the moment that we find ourselves in now .

Saturday afternoon I was chilling on my boat, stoked to be back with my boys, enjoying a Bud Light hoping the fish would bite. Sunday morning I was getting onto a plane to fly someplace that I had never been before, not really sure why I was going, but feeling that for some reason I needed to go. I did not have anything else going on that week and saw a neat opportunity to get away from Vegas and the tournament trail for a few days of rest and relaxation. I had no idea what to expect really. My primary contact was Lara, but I had never even met her. Ever. I knew a friend of mine was in Montana, but this is a pretty big state and I had no idea where he was. I knew that I was giving a poker seminar and getting put up in a sweet hotel. And, well, that’s about it.

I’m really glad I came here.

It’s Wednesday night. I fly back to Vegas tomorrow at 12:25pm. Lara is sleeping next to me. And I am the luckiest man alive.

I really had no intentions of pursuing any sort of serious relationship for quite a while - at least until after the next Series. I’ve been through some tough things in the past year on that front and really just wanted to take some time off, live a bit of the bachelor lifestyle that is so easily supported in Vegas. But what I found up here in Montana has very much changed my life for the forseeable future. She’s very much involved in it.

No, not getting married anytime soon. No, not moving to Montana. But I do have a girlfriend :-).

It’s just so werid though how little control we have over our lives it seems. I was fully committed to my singlehood but this girl has completely changed my opinion. She hasn’t exactly been trying to either. It’s just clicked so well that I’m still in shock over it all. Her personality is incredible, she’s a ton of fun, she actually likes poker (kinda comes with the owning a poker room territory), she is passionate about life, she’s driven, motivated, intelligent, and pretty much drop dead gorgeous. Yep. I’m hooked.

I feel so fortunate and blessed to have had the ability and freedom to be able to get onto a plane with twelve hours notice and fly 800 miles to a place I’ve never been before simply because I want to. This trip has been so sweet on so many levels and I’m so excited to see what happens next.

Who knows what will happen next. I used to think that I had a pretty good grasp on what was happening next in my life. I’m supposed to be on a plane tomorrow at 12:25. Maybe they have a later flight :-).

Thanks for reading.

Devo

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I don’t know how to tell you this… I’m kinda big deal around here.

I have never experienced anything quite like this!

Lara and I

So here I am at the Woodpeckers Casino, home of the Bluff Poker Room that Lara owns preparing to give a seminar tonight. The subject material is loosely a discourse on what it takes to be a professional giving the lessons that I have learned the hard way. I am going to be very open and honest about what it is like to be a professional and then follow it up by a Q&A time - there’s no question that I won’t answer honestly!

In other news, I finally kicked Coinflip’s ass at a coin flip. I’m now a strong .333 in our three sessions. Thank God there is two more days left in this trip so I can get un-flip-stuck.

Off to mingling.

Peace,

Devo

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